DISCRIMINATION BY GENDER IN THE LOCAL LABOUR MARKET: A STUDY FOR THE MUNICIPALITIES OF THE RIO GRANDE DO SUL

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to analyze the difference in income between men and women in the main municipalities of the seven mesoregions of Rio Grande do Sul. Therefore, from the 2010 Census database, the decomposition of the gender earnings differential is obtained using the Oaxaca-Blinder procedure with the addition of controls for the sectors (economic activities) of the analyzed municipalities. This procedure allows checking whether the magnitude of the wage difference between the genders is explained by differences in productive attributes of individuals, in the allocation between sectors of economic activity, in the characteristics of the labor market of the municipalities or by factors related to discrimination. The results show that although women have greater productive attributes than men, they receive lower wages, even when controls for the allocation in the activities and for local labor markets are included, a fact that provides sufficient evidence for the existence of statistical discrimination against women in all analyzed municipalities.